


Sing Victory

by revise_leviathan



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-14
Updated: 2015-04-14
Packaged: 2018-03-22 21:37:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3744439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/revise_leviathan/pseuds/revise_leviathan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Only days into the invasion of Heartland, Shun insists he, Yuto and Ruri make sure their decks are running optimally, even if he's got some reservations himself. Also read: totally how Shun ended up running Fuzzy and Singing Lanius.</p>
<p>Response to the Arc-V 30 Day Challenge, Day 14 - Deckbuilding.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sing Victory

**Author's Note:**

> This started off normal-ish and then it got soul-crushing at the end there so. Be prepared for that.
> 
> Partially inspired by some conversations with friends I had after Fuzzy and Singing Lanius' debuts where we joked that Ruri probably made Shun run them.

It only takes days after the invasion of Heartland for Shun to drag Ruri and Yuto into a mercifully abandoned – for now – garage, sit them down, and insist they sort out their decks. Even with orphaned screams outside, the crash of the occasional crushed building in the distance, they can’t afford to focus on that now. It’s their own survival or dying trying to be a hero, and much as Shun hates to say it, he knows which one he’s picking. They stare up at him with two wide sets of eyes, one grey and one yellow, like his own, and he darts a fearful glance back at the door and the distant sounds coming from behind it before he explains himself.

“I’m not having one of you… _lost_ ,” he can’t quite say _killed_ , not yet, it hasn’t been long enough, “because you were testing something or forgot to add a card to your deck, or—”

He breaks off with a deep, breathy sigh reeking of stress and frustration and sits down with them, pulling out his deck box to spread his cards in front of him. The room is cramped and dingy, and there’s a smell like one of the smashed-up containers strewn around had petrol in it, but it’s good enough. They can’t hope for anything better at this point.

Yuto follows his gaze back to outside for a moment, eyes still new to the horror of the invasion unlike Shun’s, which are starting to die out already, and he swallows hard before dealing out his own deck. The Phantom Knights had always been _his_ , sure, and he’d believed in them with all his heart, he just never expected to be fighting for his life with them. Ruri merely watches them both before shrugging and grabbing her own deck to tweak. She’s quick about it – she’d always been quite decisive about what cards she did and didn’t need, a side-effect of having Shun for an older brother and tutor – and she tucks it away again before shuffling across to peer over her brother’s shoulder at his neatly ordered Raidraptor cards, sorted into ‘yes’, ‘no’, and ‘maybe’. While he confidently adds three copies of Force Strix to the ‘yes’ area, she reaches down into the ‘maybe’ pile and picks up two cards, skimming the effects as her expression scrunches into confusion.

“Why aren’t you running these? They’re incredible for your deck.”

She snags the other copies of them from the ground and makes to hand them to her brother, but as soon as he looks down at them, his gaze darts away and he mutters something inaudible.

“Excuse me?”

“…They’re not exactly _war_ cards, are they?”

Her eyes flick back to the names; Raidraptor – Fuzzy Lanius and Raidraptor – Singing Lanius. ‘Singing Lanius’ is even cute and chubby, positively huggable by Raidraptor standards, and she snorts derisively before she grabs his hand and shoves them into it.

“I don’t want—”

“ _I_ don’t want to lose you because you won’t let yourself run something with a silly name. Like you said, big brother. We’re not in the schoolyard anymore. This is war.”

Yuto looks up from his cards like he’s expecting to have to stop a fight, his hands clenching on his last Xyz, his vital toolbox monster, The Phantom Knights of Breaking Sword. It’s not a true ace, and he’s scared of what it might mean that he doesn’t have a card that he can rely on like Ruri and Shun do. But he adds it to his deck with a certainty that speaks of the amount of duels it’s helped him win, and he raises his head to look at Shun, who still seems surprised at the interruption.

“She’s right. They won’t be laughing at you when you crush them with those cards. They’re only as fit for…for _war_ as you make them.”

He hasn’t stopped stumbling over the word yet. It’s harder than it should be to say, and Shun can relate. Silently, he inclines his head, and takes the cards from Ruri, adding them carefully to his ‘yes’ pile.

“…You’re right. Thank you both.”

It’s simple and a little formal at the same time, but Ruri and Yuto have both been watching him change over the last few days, more quickly than anyone should have to. He’s been putting up a professional distance, because if he’s not that close he can be more level-headed and protect them better, and it’s painful to watch him pretend he cares less than he does. But it’s even worse watching beautiful pastel monuments crumble under Fusion monsters outside and hearing people’s last screams as the invaders catch up with them, and they both know that’s what he’s trying to protect them from. They each reach out to lay a hand on one of his, and his lack of control over himself just yet is betrayed by a flicker of sadness and pain behind his eyes.

“Don’t thank us, big brother, if you’re going to protect us.”

“We’ll trust whatever decision you decide to make.”

That’s when the illusion breaks, and Yuto and Ruri, eleven apiece, move in as Shun, still raw and horrified and only thirteen, claws at his hair and bursts into tears. He can’t see it when they hug him, but they smile reassuringly at each other as they feel hot, wet tracks down their own faces.

They still have their hearts. Surely that’s one thing the invasion can’t take away from them.


End file.
